Missa brevis

The autograph of the Missa brevis K.192 (186f), known as the Little Credo Mass (because of the Credo calls interspersed in the text of the third movement), is dated Salzburg, 24 June 1774. This Mass, intended for Sundays and minor feasts, was in any case written for Salzburg Cathedral, in the archives of which is preserved an authentic set of parts, containing markings by Mozart and his father. When the master journeyed to Paris in 1777, he took the autograph of this work along with him, leaving it with the canons of Heilig Geist Kloster in Augsburg to have parts copied out.

According to Abert, (who wrote a classic biography of Mozart) this work is considered 'by manyto be the high point of Mozart's 'youthful Masses'', and, 'as far as the motivic unity of the individual movements and the strengthening of the contrapuntal element is concerned, goes far beyond everything composed hitherto'.